Christian instruction have been enjoyed for a longer time, and are more signally displayed. The following extract will illustrate this fact.

"After dinner we removed to Berend's kraal, about two miles distant, where a considerable number of people assembled in the evening to worship. It was a motley meeting, being composed of Griquas, Namaquas, Damaras, Bootshuanas, Bushmen, &c. No congregation could have sat more still, both without and within the tent, thongh there was a cold wind blowing, accompanied with darkness, thunder,

lightning, and rain.

"There was one circumstance in this meeting of a very affecting nature. I saw before me, at this moment, worshipping under the same tent, and receiving the glad tidings of the Gospel with much feeling, the noted Africaner, and Berend the Griqua captain. Till their conversion they were mortal ene.

mies to each other. Berend was brought to feel the power of Divine truth se veral years before Africaner. When the Namaqua chief was converted, be sent a message to the Griqua chiefs, confessing the injuries he had done them, and soliciting them at the same time to unite with him in promoting universal peace, and the im provement of the people.

"Africaner and Berend are both

engaged in prayer, and Africaner knelt at his side. Twenty-four years before this time they and their respective adherents fought for five days against each other on the banks of the Great Orange River. Africaner had now some intention of leaving the west side of Africa, and of taking up his resi dence in the vicinity of Berend, for the remainder of his days." Vol. II. pp. 237-239.

sions to the south of the Orange We say nothing here of the misRiver, and within the bounds of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Our former volumes contain such ample details, of the successful labours both of the Moravian Brethren and of the London Missionary Society, as to render this unnecessary. We are anxious rather to collect, from the account given us of those newer and more re. of the Orange River, such facts as mote missions attempted to the north are calculated to encourage the hope of introducing the Gospel, with all its attendant blessings, among those barbarous tribes which have now for the first time been brought to our knowledge. The road has at least been smoothed and prepared. The kind reception which has been

judicious, excellent Christians; and given to the missionaries by some their own feelings must have been strongly excited upon the present occasion. These patriarchal men are now kings, fathers, and priests, in their domestic connexions. They instruct their families, preside among the people in the absence of missionaries, and breathe nothing but peace on earth and good will to men. Thus when God blesses his people, he makes them blessings to others. With all the particulars relating to these chiefs in view, what would Infidelity have said on contemplating so interesting a scene? To what agency would she have ascribed this marvellous change in the characters of these men? Could her favourite system have exhibited such fruits, she would have called upon all men to fall down and worship her!

"The subject of address was- The invitation of God to the ends of the earth to look to Him, and to Him alone, for salvation.' Berend, on this occasion,

of the native chiefs, and the actual or projected establishment, with the fullest consent of the chiefs and people, of missionary settlements so far up in the interior, are favourable omens of ultimate success. We see little danger for those establishments, provided the missionaries, and future travellers into the same quarter, conduct themselves in the peaceable and prudent manner which has distinguished all Mr. Campbell's proceedings; and, should these settlements flourish, they will, in no long time, send out shoots and branches to overspread the neighbouring districts. impression has been made upon the minds of several of the chiefs, that the missionaries are harmless, friendly, and disinterested men, travelling into the interior for the pur

An

pose of propagating a humane and benevolent religion. This is a considerable point gained; and the circumstance already mentioned of Matteebe, the chief of Lattakoo, having actually been induced, through the influence of the missionaries, to put a stop to his commandoes, reminds us not a little of the behaviour of Pomare, the Otaheitan Monarch, in throwing his idols into the sea; though the progress made of late towards the conversion of the South Sea islanders affords unquestionably a more hopeful prospect than any thing which has yet taken place in the interior of Africa.

We rejoice most devoutly in every favourable symptom of success in this quarter, and would earnestly recommend unwearied perseverance in the good work. We cannot, it is true, be blind to the very small effect which has hitherto been produced upon the minds of those natives of southern Africa who lie beyond the boundaries of the Cape colony. Indeed, as yet, religious instruction has been communicated to the natives of Lattakoo, and the places north of it, only through the medium of an interpreter; and among them we meet with no instance of decided conversion. Sometimes the hearers are apparently attentive; at other times they are noisy and troublesome; but no permanent impression seems yet to be made beyond that of the peaceful character of our religion, and of the men who administer it. The sight of a bead or a snuff-box seems at all times sufficient to put to flight every idea of a religious nature. We do not say that this is surprising in savages, nor that it is altogether unlike the conduct of many nominal Christians, who call themselves civilized: but we think it proves two things; the natural aversion of the human heart to spiritual subjects, which is the great doctrine that lies at the foundation of Christianity, and also the importance of intellectual culture, through the medium of general

education, in order to raise these poor creatures some degrees higher in the scale of rational and reflecting beings. We have only to cast our eye over Mr. Campbell's details, in which he records his conversations with some of the better disposed and more intelligent among the natives, in order to be convinced of the darkness and ignorance which cloud their understandings, upon all subjects which lie beyond the reach of their senses, and the sphere of their daily occupations. We allude particularly to the couversations with Matteebe and Munameets (Vol. I. pp. 77-81), two of the best friends of the Missionaries. Their answers to our author's interrogatories exhibit, with few exceptions, a certain childishishness of intellect, which is somewhat discouraging. Mr. Campbell admits that little impression can be hoped for, "till the Missionaries can address them in their own tongue without an interpreter." The necessity for an interpreter is no doubt one very great inconvenience; but, humanly speaking, little effect will be produced till "their frivolity," of which Mr. Campbell so grievously complains, is in some degree subdued by the discipline of a religious education.

And yet let us here guard against being thought to undervalue the efficacy of the preaching of Christ crucified, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, on the most untutored minds. We cannot forget what the Greenlanders, now such distinguished trophies of the power of redeeming grace, once were. The poet's description of them is no fiction; it is drawn in the sober colours of truth, and, almost in every line of it, finds its counterpart in the inhabitants of Lattakoo, Mashow, and Kurreechane.

"What were they? What some fools are They were by nature-Atheists, head made by art

and heart.

The gross idolatry blind heathens teach,
Was too refined for them, beyond their

reach.

lieves

They were, what base credulity be- missionaries, we must always regard as an essential and indispensable means of success.

True Christians are; dissemblers, drunkards, thieves.

The full gorg'd savage, at his nauseous feast

Spent half the darkness, and snor'd out

the rest;

Was one whom Justice, on an equal plan,
Denouncing death upon the sins of man,
Might almost have indulged with an
escape,

Chargeable only with a human shape." The change wrought by Christianity on the Greenlander, will, we trust, in a much shorter space than that in which it crowned the labours of the patient and persevering Moravian, shew, in the case of these almost equally degraded children of Africa, that the Gospel, like its Author the same yesterday, today, and for ever, is still the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, reaching the heart, and elevating the aim, and enlightening the understanding, and renovating the life, even of these barbarians; and that we shall see renewed in these southern regions, the scenes, which under the icy pole, nearly a century ago, gladdened the hosts of heaven

ways,

Is sober, meek, benevolent, and prays;
Feeds sparingly, communicates his store,
And he that stole has learn'd to steal
no more."

Let us not, however, from any thing we have said, be thought, for one moment, to insinuate that the Missionaries in South Africa have been backward in the establishment of schools for the instruction of the natives. It is, in truth, one of the grand instruments which they employ, and wisely employ, for forwarding the great object of their mission; and which, without meaning in any degree to detract from the efficacy and the necessity of that Divine influence which can alone prosper the best exertions of

We do not deny that particular instances may, here and there, be found, in which the good seed of the word grows up in a sudden and surprising manner. But we do not live in an age of miracles, nor have we any right to expect them. The only way in which the Gospel is likely to be extensively propagated, under the present economy of Providence, is by the labours of missionaries, and the general diffusion of the Scriptures, co-operating with the power of education, and with the progress of mental culture and improvement. The work of conversion may probably be, at first, far more gradual than many sanguine minds imagine; but it may not be, on that account, less solid or less sincere

We shall not be suspected of undervaluing the importance of missionaries, or of a general circulation of the Scriptures, as instruments for the conversion of the heathen. There is, however, one topic relating to this greatwork, upon which we wish to say a few words, as it has engaged perhaps less attention than it deserves; we mean, the importance of promoting, as much as possible, knowledge, piety, and zeal among the professed Christians of our several foreign establishments. We do well, no doubt, in dispatching missionaries from our own shores. We do well in translating the Scriptures into various languages, and circulating them far and widely. But we are disposed to think, that our own colonies and settlements must be far more completely Christianized than they are at present, before any considerable progress will be made towards the conversion of the heathen in their immediate vicinity, or among whom they dwell. We seem to want, in the first instance, missionaries to our own countrymen residing in foreign lands: in other words, we want a greater number of pious, able, and devoted mini